I found out on Sunday that the AFA (American Family Association) is calling for a boycott of Procter & Gamble. Focus on the Family is supporting the boycott as well. Upon looking into it a bit more today, I see that the AFA is actually just calling for a boycott of three specific product lines – Crest, Tide, and Pampers – which is far easier than boycotting the entire company since they’re such a huge presence in the industry. Anyway, the boycott is in response to Procter & Gamble’s position openly supporting (in pretty big ways) the homosexual agenda.
I have a couple of problems with this boycott and the idea of boycotts in general. First, Procter & Gamble is a mammoth entity. It would take an awful lot of people boycotting them to make an ounce of difference in their bottom line. This doesn’t mean one person or another shouldn’t join in, but I’m not optimistic that enough people will care enough to change their normal practices and try new products from other companies. Cynical? Perhaps.
My second problem is that if I boycott a company because they don’t support my beliefs, how can I be sure the company I buy things from instead isn’t supporting something I’m against, too? It’s not that I want to support companies that don’t agree with me morally, but I just don’t know all that many “Christian” companies. It seems like most of the companies that are out there support something that I don’t like. Now, if someone suggested a viable alternative to me that came from a company that supported Christian values, I’d be happy to try the alternative. To be viable I would say it had to be a reasonable quality product and similar in cost to the one I’m trying to avoid. It would be nice if the organizations calling for the boycott would provide a list of good alternatives.
These two things being said, you probably won’t hear of me buying Crest, Tide, or Pampers any time soon. Boycott aside, I do want to try to be conscious of where my money is going. Though I won’t be so thorough as to research all of the companies I buy things from, if I act on the ones that are brought to my attention from time to time, maybe I’ll avoid supporting the ones that are worst (worst being defined as giving the most support to things that go against my morals). Besides, I only bought Crest when I had coupons, and I don’t buy Tide. Pampers will be a bit of a sacrifice, but the reason I used the diapers was because they were the only ones I could find that Alexis wouldn’t leak out of when she was a baby. Branwen doesn’t tend towards leaks as much, so I might actually be able to save some money by trying a different brand for her. 🙂 I’ll miss the Pampers wipes because I really liked them, but we’ll survive.
Along the lines of being conscious where your money goes, here are two other companies we don’t support any more. Earthlink was our ISP until we randomly came upon an Earthlink promoted pornographic CD-rom. We didn’t like that, so we switched ISPs. Once again, the switch saved us money, too, so there’s nothing to complain about there. (We’re now with Mailaka and so far we’ve had a very good experience with them… not many problems and very good support when the occasional problem has arisen.) The only other company we don’t give business to is Target. (Many of my friends don’t understand how I can avoid them when they have such good prices, but WalMart is pretty competitive even if it is a little farther away.) I found out while my mom was volunteering with her area Pregnancy Care Center that Target supports Planned Parenthood. Being an ardent pro-lifer, I don’t feel right giving them my money especially when there is a viable alternative as far as I’m concerned. WalMart has been pretty supportive of the pro-life side of things (refusing to provide the morning after pill from its pharmacies, for example), so I’m more comfortable supporting them. They’ve also been very responsive to Christian groups asking them to remove offensive materials from their magazine racks, etc. (Not to mention they’ve been very nice about letting church groups come and sing Christmas music on their property and such whereas at least one Target that I know of refused.)
So I don’t know how effective this boycott will be, but I’m willing to put my money elsewhere for now. 🙂 I may even stop buying some other P&G brand products if I find viable alternatives. I guess it seems to me like it’s more a matter of conscience than a matter of expecting to make a financial difference in the life of their company.